Canadian medical research strategy for the eighties. II. Promise or performance as the basis for the distribution of research funds?

It is widely accepted that public funds for medical research should be distributed to those who can best state what they propose to do with the funds. This should ensure ultimate public control over how the funds are spent, responsible budgeting on the part of the researcher and optimal progress in the understanding of disease. In this article it is argued that this "promise" system of distributing funds achieves none of these objectives. The primary basis for the distribution of funds should not lie in the imaginary world of future promise; which is difficult to evaluate and leads to a hyperpoliticization of the funding process. Instead, funds should be distributed on the basis of the real world of past research and budgetary performance. The "performance" approach lends itself well to a situation in which the majority of medical researchers have a long term commitment to a sustained career in medical research, a stable level of expenditure and a record of the effectiveness with which they have spent past funds.